{"id":26321,"date":"2023-12-08T05:30:17","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T10:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=26321"},"modified":"2023-10-17T09:17:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T13:17:32","slug":"a-conversation-with-tom-hambridge-part-2-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/08\/a-conversation-with-tom-hambridge-part-2-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with Tom Hambridge (Part 2 of 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a>…<\/i><\/p>\n

Do you get involved in artistic decisions about things like track sequencing?<\/b><\/p>\n

I have. I\u2019m a record guy. You mentioned Susan Tedeschi\u2019s record: I remember her saying to Rosey, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to start the record with \u2018Rock Me Right.\u2019\u201d\u2019 He said, \u201cOh, no, no, no. I don\u2019t want to start the record with that; it\u2019s got the word \u2018rock\u2019 in it. I have a blues label, and I don\u2019t want to offend. Right off the bat, I want Susan to be known as a blues artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cNumber one, I don\u2019t give a shit. I want the blues people to love her, and they will, but I want the world<\/i> to love her.\u201d And then, the other thing is \u201cRock Me Baby\u201d by B.B. King. It worked for him!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How does being a drummer gives you a unique perspective as a producer?<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m playing drums on probably 99% of all the records that you hear that I produce. [With other producers], the band\u2019s over there in the tracking room, and the producer\u2019s behind the glass. When I\u2019m producing a record, I\u2019m in the war zone with the musicians. I\u2019m discussing everything with them. I\u2019m also feeling the tempos, feeling when it should get the dynamic, when it should get loud, and when it should get soft. And they can read off me.<\/p>\n

If I\u2019m really in tune with the songs, and these amazing session players are hearing the songs for the first time, by my playing right there I can show them where I want it to go. Because I\u2019m the drummer; I\u2019m motoring it. When things get exciting, I\u2019m able to be right in there with them as opposed to [waiting until] after they do a take to say, \u201cAll right, guys: I think it\u2019s way too slow. I think it needs more energy in the bridge. I think we need to come down after the last chord.\u201d And I think that really helps.<\/p>\n

Were the songs on <\/b>Blu Ja Vu<\/b><\/i> written with the idea of having the guest players?<\/b><\/p>\n

Sometimes. On this particular record, of course, I wrote \u201cBrother John Boogie\u201d for James Cotton. That song is about my older brother who turned me onto James Cotton. He used to sneak me into clubs to see him play. He passed away, so I wrote this song and I went to James and said, \u201cThis is a tribute to my brother. Would you play on this?\u201d I was producing [2013\u2019s] Cotton Mouth Man<\/i> at the time, and James said, \u201cOh man, I\u2019m happy to do that.\u201d So that song had<\/i> to be him.
\nI wrote \u201cAin\u2019t It Just Like Love\u201d with Richard Fleming, and I thought, \u201cThis would make a good duet. Maybe someday I\u2019ll ask Buddy [Guy].\u201d I played it for Buddy, and he said, \u201cOh, I\u2019d love to sing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are times when I\u2019ll just record a song with a friend who comes over, and it\u2019ll just sit, because I\u2019m in the middle of producing all these other records, so I don\u2019t have time to make my<\/i> next record. Then somebody\u2019ll ask me, \u201cWhat about that song you did with Jonny Lang?\u201d or something. I go, \u201cI should do something with that sometime,\u201d but I don\u2019t. But, in this particular case, I said, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m going to put this on my Blu Ja Vu<\/i> record.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wrote \u201cBlues Don\u2019t Care\u201d on a Buddy Guy record called Rhythm and Blues<\/i> [2013]. I went to New York and recorded it as a duet with Gary Clark Jr. and Buddy. It\u2019s a deep track on that record.<\/p>\n

When I was recording with Kingfish and I was discussing my record, he said, \u201cI\u2019d love to be a guest on it.\u201d I said, \u201cWell, we could write something.\u201d He said, \u201cThat song that Buddy did with Gary Clark, we could do that!\u201d He was on fire about that.<\/p>\n

I specifically wanted \u201cThat\u2019s My Home\u201d for Joe Bonamassa, and he graciously said \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d He sang the heck out of it. And his guitar solo in that song is spooky; it\u2019s crazy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This being the 2020s, so much is done remotely. Did you work with the guest artists physically in the same studio, or was there file sharing?<\/b><\/p>\n

I did it in the same studio. I\u2019m so old school; I\u2019m totally about being there. I flew to England to record with Jeff Beck on one song for a Buddy Guy record. I went to New York to record Mick Jagger or Keith Richards.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m constantly about being there, but I totally understand when you can\u2019t. But fortunately, in this instance, I was in the studio with Kingfish, I went to Chicago and [recorded] with Buddy Guy in the studio, with Joe Bonamassa at Ocean Way. Josh Smith, the same.<\/p>\n

The list of people that you\u2019ve worked with is staggering. Is there someone you haven\u2019t worked with yet that you\u2019d really like to?<\/b><\/p>\n

I always say this. It\u2019s Paul McCartney. I\u2019ve been fortunate to meet him, and we\u2019ve almost<\/i> done a few things. But it didn\u2019t work out because he was busy. I\u2019ve worked with pretty much all of my dream-come-true artists, but it would be wonderful to work with McCartney.<\/p>\n

What can an artist who chooses you as their producer expect the experience to be like?<\/b><\/p>\n

Hopefully it\u2019s going to be pleasant. It\u2019s going to be inspiring. Every artist that comes to me, I want to make the best record they\u2019ve ever made. They could\u2019ve made 20 records, but I want to make the best<\/i> one. I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat would I want their record to sound like? If I just ripped it open, got it at the record store, I was putting it on, what would blow me away?\u201d And that\u2019s where I start.<\/p>\n

I push the songs: \u201cCan we write a better song? Is that the best song?\u201d I\u2019m constantly pushing everybody in the studio to be creative, to bring all your creativity in. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing you can do that\u2019s wrong, but let\u2019s up the bar as best we can.\u201d When [my artists] win awards, people ask me, \u201cHow do you know<\/i>? How do you do that?\u201d I say, \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about the awards. It\u2019s great that they win them, but if I\u2019m making a record for Kenny Neal or Joe Louis Walker, I\u2019m just trying to make the best record for them<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

I make it sound the best I can make it, and I never to take my foot off the accelerator until I think we got it. And then, it goes out into the world, and then whatever happens, happens, you know?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One… Do you get involved in artistic decisions about things like track sequencing? I have. I\u2019m a record guy. You mentioned Susan Tedeschi\u2019s record: I remember her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,41],"tags":[5266],"class_list":["post-26321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-interview","tag-tom-hambridge","cat-9-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26327,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26321\/revisions\/26327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}